On March 20th, 2003, over 100 medical and advocacy organizations from across the country united in an effort to raise awareness about emergency contraception (EC) through a campaign called Back Up Your Birth Control. In 2004, Back Up Your Birth Control Day will be recognized on March 22. The goal of the campaign is to encourage women to have EC, or a prescription for it, on hand in their medicine cabinets, in case of contraceptive failures or unprotected sex.

What is emergency contraception?
First the facts: the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two "dedicated" emergency contraception products available by prescription in the U.S. (Preven and Plan B). Emergency contraception is for those nail-biting occasions when a condom breaks, or a diaphragm slips, or a woman forgets to take her Pill--that's why it's sometimes called "back up birth control." It is not intended for use as a regular method of contraception.

EC is basically a higher dosage of the same hormones found in birth control pills for women, and taking a course of it can prevent a pregnancy from ever starting by delaying ovulation, inhibiting fertilization, and preventing implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus. EC is not the same as Mifeprex or RU-486; those drugs terminate early pregnancies, while EC can prevent a pregnancy from ever happening in the first place. If a woman is already pregnant, EC won't work for her.

EC works for up to 72 hours after sex, and the sooner a woman takes it, the more effective it is. The user takes two doses of pills, twelve hours apart. Because of the three-day window, the term "morning-after pill," a common nickname for emergency contraception, is actually kind of misleading. Temporary side effects can include nausea, vomiting, and breast tenderness, but no serious side effects are associated with EC.

EC does not protect against sexually transmitted disease. And, EC is not intended to serve as regular protection against pregnancy, because it is not as effective as any ongoing contraceptive method such as birth control pills, which are more than 99% effective, or condoms, which are 97% effective with perfect use.

Why the campaign?
Though EC has been available in the U.S. for more than 25 years, a surprisingly small number of women--two percent, to be exact--report ever having used it. That may be because people haven't heard of EC, or because they aren't sure what it is.

Of the three million unintended pregnancies that happen in the U.S. every year, just over half are reported by women who use regular methods of contraception. Since no method of birth control on the market is 100% effective (a condom may break, or a woman may not take her birth control pills consistently), sexually active people are at risk for unintended pregnancy. Researchers estimate that roughly half of those three million unintended pregnancies could be prevented by widespread awareness and use of EC.

Kristin Moore, President of the non-profit Reproductive Health Technologies Project, which is coordinating the campaign to get the word out, says: "The goal of Back Up Your Birth Control is to make sure that women and health care providers know about--and talk about--emergency contraception, and to encourage women to get a dose before they need it." The push to get health care providers more actively involved in the EC awareness chain is especially important, since studies have shown that less than one in four OB-GYN and family practice physicians discuss EC when they counsel their patients about birth control.

Criticism of Campaigns and the Method
Emergency contraception and campaigns that promote information or access to the methods are not universally embraced. Some critics suggest that the promotion of a "morning after pill" leads to a false sense of security and advocates promiscuity--especially among youth. "One might expect the medical profession to speak out against promiscuity, if only to prevent the disease and destruction it causes. Instead, public health professionals have not only made peace with sexual license (against society's practical interests), but now virtually advocate it. The campaign for the morning after pill is just one case in point," argues Teresa R. Wagner of the Family Research Council. Little research exists to support or reject this idea, however one study of women aged 16-44 in Scotland suggests that women who have been given EC to have on hand used the method correctly and were not more likely to engage in risky or unprotected sexual activity.

Availability of Emergency Contraception
Currently emergency contraceptive pills are available in the U.S. by prescription only. A woman can get an EC prescription from her physician or many other reproductive health care providers. In a limited number of states, including Washington and California, women can get EC directly from pharmacists, without having to visit a clinic or doctor's office first.

Because EC is so tremendously time sensitive, one of the big goals of the Back Up Your Birth Control Campaign is for women to ask their doctors to "pre-prescribe" them a dose of EC. According to the campaign, tracking down a doctor can be hard, even under the calmest circumstances; having a dose of EC on hand "just in case" can be a good preventive measure for anyone who's sexually active.

The FDA has extended the shelf life on the two "dedicated" emergency contraception products available by prescription in the U.S. (Preven and Plan B), making it possible for women to keep EC in their medicine cabinets for two years or more.

Other Campaigns to Build EC Awareness
The Women's Capital Corporation, which manufactures Plan B, one of the two FDA-approved emergency contraceptives, has also recently launched a major ad campaign to inform young people about the availability of EC. Their print ads and posters have been placed on campuses and in newspapers at 30 colleges and universities across the country. They feature groups of college-aged guys posing over slogans like "Delta Delta Thi: 27 Upstanding Young Men. 34 Billion Sneaky Little Sperm." The posters also include information on where and how to get emergency contraception. Click here to view the ads.

On the political horizon, Senator Patty Murray (WA) and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY) recently introduced legislation to direct federal health agencies to inform the public about EC. The bill, entitled "The Emergency Contraception Education Act," would allot $10 million for a public education campaign.

How to Get More Information
To find out more about EC, call the confidential toll-free hotline: 1-888-NOT-2-LATE (English) or 1-866-EN-TRES-DIAS (Spanish). You can also visit the Emergency Contraception Website at www.not-2-late.com.

To learn more about the Back Up Your Birth Control Campaign, you can visit the campaign website at www.backupyourbirthcontrol.org.

 Back to FFYR News Page